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Monsters Unleashed #1: Review

Jan 2017
Cullen Bunn, Steve McNiven

Story Name:

(No title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
3.5 stars

Monsters Unleashed #1 Review by (January 23, 2017)
Characters: Avengers: Captain America (Sam Wilson), Hercules, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Thor (Jane Foster), Vision, and Wasp (Nadia Pym). X-Men: Iceman, Jean Gray, Nightcrawler, Old Man Logan, Storm. Guardians of the Galaxy: Drax, Gamora, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord. Inhumans: Crystal, Human Torch, Inferno, Karnak, Medusa, Triton. Champions: Cyclops (teen version), Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan) Nova (Sam Alexander), Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Viv Vision. Plus Black Panther, Shuri, Elsa Bloodtone, Moon Girl, Devil Dinosaur.

Comments: Various characters appear on the cover but not inside the comic: Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Colossus, Iron Man (any),Wolverine (X-23), and a guy I don't recognize.

Review: A lesser big event which rivals all the others in bigness: superheroes fighting giant monsters! And that's it. Superheroes fighting giant monsters—and oh yeah, the boy who is the key to defeating them. There's the human interest: introducing Kei Kawade, a boy whose Inhuman heritage comes out when it is revealed that he can summon creatures by drawing them, even to the point of creating things from his imagination. [Thought: Will he take art lessons in later issues of his new series so he can summon people and things other than monsters? It is a point to ponder.] Anyway, the epic qualities of the tale tale can be appreciated though the talents of the five artists who are all masters at creating massive mayhem in the pages of the series. Sheer mass destruction of the world's major cities for our entertainment!!! (Just try not to think of the horribly high death toll behind this—it's like Marvel is trying to top MAN OF STEEL.) In fact, this is best enjoyed as a cartoon, where no one is really hurt and everything goes back to normal in a few days with a moral lesson tacked on about facing our fears. Now there's another thought: are these events going to be referenced in the wider Marvel universe? Wouldn't e.g. Captain America's conquest of the nation in SECRET EMPIRE be hindered by the fact that multiple American cities are trying to recover from billions of dollars worth of damages and massive loss of life? We'll have to see, won't we? It was fun while it lasted.


Monsters Unleashed #1 Review by (February 4, 2017)
I'll be describing the tie-ins that are published with or 1 week after each issue of this biweekly series. That should be 2 issues for each of #1-4, unless schedules slip.

Avengers #1.MU
This is a story of 2 halves which connects directly to this issue. Spider-Man persuades the Avengers to come to Boston with him to put down a resurgence of the Maggia, who they discover are actually puppets of old Iron Man foe the Controller.
Then the monsters land and the 2nd half is a retelling of the fight in Boston from this issue - with the same dialogue despite the 2 books claiming to have different scripters. It does continue the battle to its conclusion.
Then Spidey gets magicked away to SM/Deadpool #1.MU.


Spider-Man/Deadpool #1.MU

A group of schoolgirls have captured Deadpool and use him in a magic spell to bring his wife Shiklah to Toronto to become a host for their dead sorceress headmistress. But somehow they get Spider-Man instead. A monster lands as Spidey gets possessed, and everybody has to fight it. Of course Spidey gets unpossessed at the end and heads back to our next issue.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Monsters Unleashed #1 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

As a boy sits drawing in his room, a fiery object comes down from the sky in Boston, Massachusetts. A huge and hideous monster emerges from it and begins destroying the city. The Avengers arrive on the scene and are in a predicament: only Thor and Hercules are strong enough to fight this monster so as they try luring the monster to an unpopulated area, the rest are rescuing those trapped in the area. Then two more meteors fall from the sky; as the battle becomes more desperate, Vision picks up reports of similar events around the world....

In London, the X-Men are battling a spider-like monster....

Wakanda sees Black Panther and Shuri engaging with a creature of their own....

In Seattle, the Guardians of the Galaxy have their hands full....

In New York, Moon Girl (with Devil Dinosaur) sets about to discover what is going on....

Los Angeles has the Champions fighting a gigantic eyeball...Hulk punches it right in the pupil and it goes down....

Elsa Bloodstone arrives in Peru via a portal, where she enters a heavily booby-trapped temple in search of answers to the sudden monster invasion. She discovers prehistoric cave paintings showing a series of monsters being summoned by a human-like figure bearing some kind of strange device....

Kei Kawade, the boy drawing in his room on page 1, hears the reports of the monster invasion on television and , against his mother's wishes, sneaks out into the night. In the woods, he is suddenly yanked off his feet and finds himself facing Fin Fang Foom and three other, smaller creatures. FFM warns Kei that summoning them is a dangerous game....



Steve McNiven
Jay Leisten
David Curiel
Steve McNiven (Cover Penciler)
Jay Leisten (Cover Inker)
David Curiel (Cover Colorist)


Characters

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> Monsters Unleashed: Book info and issue index

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